My Science Fair Topics: Momentum Involved In Dance

Momentum

My science fair topic is momentum, specifically the momentum involved in dance. I chose this topic because I’ve loved dancing all my life. I thought it would be interesting to know more about the physics involved in it. I’ll be studying the basics of momentum and how it works in dance movements. For my experiment I will be finding out which dance leap has the most momentum. All you may know about momentum may be from sports. A team may be said to be gaining momentum. This means that the team is on a roll and the other team won’t easily be able to stop them. This has even helped me in dance; whenever I start to get tired while performing a dance, I think about how I’ve already gained a lot of momentum, I can’t give

In leaps and jumps, the more mass you have, the harder it is to stop moving at a particular speed. Turns depend on rotational inertia, and don’t have much to do with momentum, which was surprising to me. In case you were wondering, rotational inertia is how difficult it is to start something

This can be seen in moves like turns in second and fouettes. When doing a fouette, you extend your leg out and pull it in while turning. Every time you pull your leg in, you gain speed. That is momentum in action. Pulling your leg in to passe gives you the extra push of momentum you need to pirouette again and do another fouette turn. Angular momentum is moment of inertia and angular velocity. In simpler terms, it is momentum moving in a circle, rather than in a straight line. The law conservation of angular momentum is about the same, too, the total angular momentum of objects cannot change. Angular momentum stays constant unless another force acts on it. When a dancer is in the air, the only force acting on them is gravity. The more mass an object has, the greater its gravitational pull. This applies to momentum as well, more mass = more momentum. Doubling an object’s mass will double its momentum and gravitational pull as well, so dancers with different masses will be able to jump or leap at the same height. For my experiment, I decided to put the things I learned about momentum in the dance studio. I got my friend Kaitlyn to help me by performing leaps and we discovered which leap had the most momentum.

Lab